The Visitors (1972)

User Rating:

6.7/10   

Director:

Elia Kazan

Writer:

Chris Kazan (writer)

Release Date:

16 November 1972 (Denmark)

Genre:

Crime | Thriller | Drama

Plot:

Bill, Martha and their little child Hal are spending a quiet winter Sunday in their cosy house when...

Plot Keywords:

Vietnam | Rape | Revenge | Hostage | Veteran

Awards:

1 nomination

Cast

Patrick McVey	...	Harry Wayne
Patricia Joyce	...	Martha Wayne
James Woods	...	Bill Schmidt
Steve Railsback	...	Mike Nickerson
Chico Martínez	...	Tony Rodrigues

Runtime:

88 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Certification:

Australia:M | USA:R

Filming Locations:

Newton, Connecticut, USA

Company:

Home Free

Trivia:

Brian De Palma says on a interview given for the DVD extras of Casualties of War (1989) that the idea from this movie came from the same story that Casualties of War (1989) is based on. The story was published in "The New Yorker" Magazine in 1969, and later became a book. Allegedly Elia Kazan also read the story on The New Yorker and had the idea of a fictional script that showed the after wards of the true history showed in Casualties of War (1989), in which the character played by Sean Penngoes to jail after has been convicted by a martial court of war crimes (he and three outer guys kidnapped, raped and them murdered a Vietnamese girl in the Vietnam war). In the movie, Sean Penn's character, in his trial, promises revenge to Michael J. Foxcharacter, who was the one that reported him.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in The Making of 'Casualties of War' (2001) (V)

Soundtrack:

Lute Suite #1

THE VISITORS (Elia Kazan, 1972) **

Untypical material for Kazan: this curiously amateurish amalgam of ACT OF VIOLENCE (1948) and THE DESPERATE HOURS (1955), updated for the Vietnam era, is unworthy of the director's unquestionable talent (despite being written by his own son!) and emerges as a pointless talking marathon - in which the dialogue is muffled most of the time anyway, because of poor sound recording!

Patricia Joyce comes off best from the hand-picked cast, which includes James Woods' debut role as the wimpish hero(!) and Steve Railsback as one of his two revenge-seeking war buddies; these actors must have thought that they had it made when they were chosen by Award-winning director Kazan (who had, after all, virtually discovered Marlon Brando, James Dean and Warren Beatty) to feature in his next movie but, unfortunately for them, THE VISITORS sank without trace despite being an official entry in that year's Cannes Film Festival!

While the film could easily have turned into a nasty shocker in the vein of THE LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT (1972) - which might even have been preferable in the long run - the story just meanders on towards a lame and inconclusive ending. At least, the film's snowy setting provides a nice pictorial backdrop...